The developer of a grocery store with attached retail space on U.S. 78 just west of Mars Hill Road has filed construction documents with Oconee County, labeling the project Publix At Oconee Station.
Fred Hand IV of Hand Properties Inc. of Atlanta cautioned that no lease for the property has been signed, and completion of an agreement with Publix is contingent on receiving building permits from the county.
At present, Hand said, discussion is focused on the needed traffic studies before permits can be granted.
At present, the roughly 12-acre site remains in the hands of William B. Jones, whose Jones Petroleum Company of Jacksonville in Telfair County built the convenience store, Burger King, and JP gas station at the corner of U.S. 78 and Mars Hill Road.
Jeremy Crosby of Jones Petroleum said the intent is to sell the property to Hand Properties as soon as the preliminary construction permitting is complete.
Cuhaci Peterson, an architectural, engineering and design firm based in Maitlin, Fla., is listed as the architect on the Construction Document filed with the Oconee County Planning and Code Enforcement Department.
The firm lists Publix as well as other grocery stores on its website project list.
First Of Promised Groceries
Grocery stores have been shown in conceptual plans for two other shopping centers approved for the U.S. 78 corridor by the Board of Commissioners.
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| Heading On Document Oconee County Planning And Code Enforcement |
In May of 2023 the Board of Commissioners approved a rezone for Oconee Crossing Shopping Center with frontage on Hog Mountain Road and on U.S. 78 northeast of Stripling’s General Store.
The plans called for a large grocery.
In September of 2021, the Board of Commissioners approved a rezone for a mixed used project on U.S. 78 between Dials Mill Road and Talus Street called Markets at Meadowlands that also included a grocery store.
Neither shopping center has moved forward with development.
Publix was to anchor a shopping center at the corner of Mars Hill Road and the Oconee Connector and had obtained the needed permit from the U.S. Corp of Engineers for disturbance of wetlands on the property.
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners turned down the needed rezone request for the shopping center, and property owner Deferred Tax LLC filed suit in Oconee County Superior Court just after that decision.
No substantive action on that lawsuit has taken place since December of 2023.
Rezone For Hand Properties Grocery
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners approved two rezone requests on April 1 of this year designed to allow Hand Properties to move forward with the project on U.S. 78 just west of Mars Hill Road.
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| Site Map For Grocery Marked With Star Document Submitted To Oconee County Planning And Code Enforcement |
The first rezone was to allow access to U.S. 78 for the grocery and shopping center.
The plan is to obtain Georgia Department of Transportation approval for a full signal interchange for access to the shopping center and for Clotfelter Road, which is opposite the planned entrance to the shopping center.
The second zoning request before the Board of Commissioners was by Jones and was to change the plans for the shopping center he submitted with his rezone in May of 2019.
Included in the new plans were the grocery and linked retail space.
Document Submitted
The document submitted to the county planning office by Hand Properties is labeled Construction Documents and contained the name Publix At Oconee Station.
Hand, in a telephone conversation on June 10, said the deal with Publix “is not fully set yet.”
“We’re working our way through the permitting and entitlements process,” he said.
“Once we have everything ready to pull the trigger and start the development, break ground,” he said, Hand Properties will take ownership of the property.
“We are in the third or fourth iteration of a traffic impact analysis,” he said.
“We don’t have a fully executed lease with the grocery anchor,” he said. “Until we have a building permit, a land disturbance permit, and an executed lease, we don’t have anything to announce.”
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